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I fell in love with Teavivre’s dragon pearls so when I placed a Harney tea order for my daughter I bought a couple of jasmine samples. I tried their plain jasmine first, which is also a pouchong base, and I liked it very much. It was getting bitter as it cooled but for some reason reheating it made everything nice again.

This one…not so great. I prefer the other one, and it is less than half the price. I was very careful about time and temperature because I noticed that the two jasmine teas had very different instructions even though both had a pouchong base. This has a lower steep temp and time which I followed, but it still has a bit of bitterness and a sour taste, and I think the jasmine is less prominent. Jasmine is really what I was after today since the puppies have had me up since four-thirty a.m. and now I have to iron.

I did read one review of another jasmine pouchong that said it helps to steep it for even less time than recommended. I may try that with the bit remaining. Supposedly this is a higher grade of pouchong than the other, and supposedly, the higher the grade the less jasmine they scent it with so as not to cover the base.

Well, sometimes it is progress to get a tea struck off the list, yes? LOL! And I know that I like the cheaper one even more, so that’s a win, too. But neither one beats Teavivre’s dragon pearls!

Yesterday when I drank this pouchong I loved it, until it started to cool. Then it got a little bite and was not as pleasant. I had about half a pot of tea left and just left it on the table. I decided to reheat it and see what happened. Surprisingly, it is nice and smooth again. One of these jasmines will be going on my next order. I still have be more to try before I decide!

This is a gift from K S. Thank you!

The aroma of the dry leaf was a nice bergamot and….pepper! What? Then I steeped it and sniffed. Bergamot and….pepper? Hmmm, that is what i thought about Imperial Earl Grey from Harney, so it must be a characteristic of some bergamot.

This is a nice green, not super smooth and mellow like a DragonWell, but not biting like some greens. This has good body and lots of character. It carries weight. I can see why KS says he sometimes drinks only this for days at a time. There is a sort of spicy/peppery quality to it, like in a really good chai, but different…lighter. I am having a hard time describing it, as you can see! The bergamot is not too strong and not perfumey, just a nice citrus/floral/spice note.

Lots of greens I sip with food so the pairing makes them more palatable to me. A few I really look forward to, and drink them with abandon. I can tell you I am guzzling this mug of tea!

Thank you, KS and Mrs. KS for the tea and the card!

I recently placed my first official order with Teavivre. I got free shipping but it arrived quickly. Of the teas I ordered, this was the only I had never tried, and I was especially excited about it. Of course, I could just add a bit of honey to my tea. One of my former music students became an organic farmer and sells honey as well, but I never add it to my tea, though I used to add it to herbals.

There was something special about hearing that this tea is SOAKED in honey produced by bees kept around this tea plantation. Wow! And wow, again!

I made this gong fu style. First steep – very good. Nice TGY and the honey really doesn’t mask the flavor. In fact, if I didn’t already know it was there I might not know it was there, you know? :)

Second steep – darker, more flavor. The leaves have really unfurled now and are quite large. What started as a thin layer of pellets on the bottom of the pot is now a pot bursting with leaves. I am now eating my salad for lunch, and I must say this tea is an amazing pairing for it: baby spring mix, tomatoes, celery, Swiss cheese, and Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing. The TGY just turned my salad into a feast.

Third and fourth steeps – the tea is a little tiny bit astringent now and doing just what the Chinese like for it to do…cleanse the palate after the meal. Perfect timing since my salad is now gone!

Delicious, and oh yes, I would definitely order this again.

First, I think this is my first pouchong. Second, autocorrect really wants to change that to “poaching”. Not going to happen.

I should have paid more attention to the directions I guess, but I was doing a lot of cooking. The “kids”, meaning my son and his GF and my godson were all visiting from college and godson’s dad joined us for the Super Bowl. Plus of corse the two daughters who still live here and hubby. Lots and lots of cooking.

Jasmine relaxes me, so I thought I would give this one a try today. I had it with my lunch of Hunters Pie made with lamb. While it was still hot and I was eating, it was really truly delicious. I came back to it later when I had finished a bit of dish washing and found it to have grown a bit bitter as it cooled. It still smelled nice but it had a bit of bite to it.

I notice that most people seem to give it a shorter steep than my instructions called for. If I have enough left in my sample pack I will try that. I bought a different H&S sample at the same time and it is also a jasmine pouchong but has radically different directions for steeping. Maybe I should go by those for both teas.

So it was a good experience overall and I thought it was fantastic at first, just disappointing after it cooled. It may improve with a lower temp and shorter steep.

Edit: reheating took away the bitter taste. Hooray! I am loving this one.

We drank this on the heels of Teavivre’s Ripened Rose Puerh Tuo Cha. I must confess it. Rishi fell flat. This tea is just…meh. Uninteresting. Slightly astringent. One dimensional. Nothing like Teavivre’s that had us resteeping and drinking cup after cup. I have made two steeps of this and I am DONE. I will try to give this away to my friend who loves puerh if she likes it. I gave my last Rishi tea to her since I didn’t like it either. I guess I should stop trying Rishi tea now. I love the double lidded tin, and will reuse that!

This is a gift from AmyOh! Thank you, Amy! I saved this for drinking with my son and his girlfriend.

This is a really great puerh. We used my gong fu set and made about five or six infusions. This has great, rich flavor. We had Rishi Pu-erh Classic afterwards and NO ONE was impressed. They preferred the Teavivre puerh.

Thank you, Amy! I shall enjoy this with my family very much!

This was initially a nice cuppa, very chocolate-y and great with our food. A while later I reheated the remaining tea and found it had gone quite bitter. Bleh. Which is much worse than meh.